Gothic architectureGothic art was born about 1440, in the Ile-de-France. Initially, it is observed only in the construction of the most important cathedrals and Abbey churches of this area. But pretty…

THE MOST ENIGMATIC STRUCTURE OF THE PLANETBuilt thousands of years ago and miraculously survived to our days, built from materials of unknown origin and conceal their true function in strange forms – on the planet there…

The Architecture Of Ancient Greece

The concept of “ancient art” first appeared in the XV century in Italy, when in combat with thousands of years of Church tradition of the middle ages argued new, is permeated with faith in the beauty and value of human culture of the Renaissance.

Its creators turned to the wonderful creations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. This great civilization of the ancient world they called the ancient (from the Latin word “antiquus” – “ancient”). Subsequently, the term “antique art” firmly entrenched in European culture.

Masterpieces, created by talented masters of the ancient world, for several centuries inspired poets, composers, playwrights and artists all over Europe, and today continues to give us artistic pleasure and to serve as a norm and unattainable model.

Artistic heritage of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome – architecture, sculpture, painting, decorative-applied and jeweller art is striking in its richness and diversity. In it a clearly expressed aesthetic views, moral ideals and tastes, typical of the ancient civilization that ended the long history of the ancient world. The creators of ancient culture were the ancient Greeks called themselves Hellenes and their country Hellas.

The ancient history of Greece and the early period of its culture until the second third of the last century were known only from legends. For knowledge of this period played a major role excavations conducted by Schliemann in 1870-1890, at Troy, Mycenae and Tiryns. Opened an art developed from the first half of the second Millennium BC in parallel with the art of the New Kingdom period in Egypt.

It is a striking art, whose works were found in Egypt (which testifies to the lively contacts of these areas with the environment) belongs to the Mycenaean culture. In the beginning of XX century A. Evans discovered in Knossos another, earlier than the Mycenaean, the culture of Crete. It is sometimes called “Minoan” (named after the legendary king Minos).

Culture of the Aegean world: Crete, the cities of Knossos, Phaistos, Triad; dozens of smaller Islands, Mycenae, Tiryns, the shores of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor (Troy), the occurrence of which belongs to the third Millennium BC, reaching the second Millennium a high level. It establishes a historical connection between early Eastern cultures and antiquity, is the first Mature European civilization in ancient history.

The discovery of Aegean civilization – one of the most outstanding achievements of archeology of the late XIX – early XX century.

Even before the birth of Greek culture in the Eastern Mediterranean in the III-II millennia BC. there was its predecessor – the Aegean civilization, the most significant centres of which were legendary Troy, sung by the great Greek poet Homer in the Iliad, the island of Crete and “Zlatoverhy” city of Mycenae in the Peloponnese.

The emergence of Greek culture

The culture of the Greeks and later the Romans, occupies an important place in the history of the development of the whole European culture. This is the culture of antiquity of the Mature slave society that emerged on the European continent. Its Zenith in the form of a slave-owning Democracy (Athens under Pericles in the V century BC. C.) the society attains a gradual development of the forms of the primitive communal system.

The interest in the art of Greece and Rome originated during the Italian Renaissance, but only in the beginning of XVIII century started the first excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii, hidden under the lava of the volcano Vesuvius.

In the second Millennium BC, Greek tribes gradually moved into the Aegean region from the North, and at the beginning of the first Millennium BC the tribes of the pastoralists and farmers deeper into the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula. So, the tribe of the Dorians Mycenaean captures the territory and brings with it a different way of life and, apparently, the knowledge of iron.

The Greeks-the Dorians, tribes which conquered Achaean cities took the religious-mythological representations of the Achaeans, many skills and traditions, but in General they stood on a lower stage of social development, it took over three centuries to the land of Ancient Hellas matured class society and have any slave-owning city-States.

Under the pressure of the Dorians local population retreats and inhabits the Islands of the Aegean sea and the coast of Asia Minor. In Greece there is a lot of city-States such as Athens or Sparta, competing among themselves.

The vastness of the territory, high mountains separating the coastal valleys, impeded the unification of the country in a single state. In VIII-VI centuries BC in these cities, situated on the Balkan Peninsula, the Aegean Islands and the coast of Asia Minor, emerging science, but the art was the sphere of interests of all Greeks, and therefore many creative achievements in this area quickly became the General property.

There was the main genres of fiction, the art of the theater are the prerequisites for a brilliant flowering of architecture and fine arts. The first temples and the first statues of stone appeared here in the VII century BC.

The winter PalaceThe winter Palace was built for Empress Elisabeth on the project of Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754-1762 years and until 1917 it remained the main Imperial residence. This fourth stone…

Megalithic masonryAllocate different groups of megaliths and the megalith can formally be considered as a rough-hewn dolmen in Europe. and higher processing blocks on the ruins of Puma Punku. For ease…